zinzilar's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Radiance Hearts]

I'm not usually big on platformers but holy smokes this one nailed it. Loved the mechanic of the two independent characters that would combine: would love to see more puzzles like that. Lovely art and set design. I found it perfectly suited to my skill level in platformers: the boss fight took me about 4 tries (before I finally figured out you don't have to dodge around the spinning one with the high jump like I was trying to do)

Delightful little game that I will absolutely revisit at some point. I can't think of a single complaint except nitpicks. Will be looking for more content from you in the future!

Yword responds:

Thank you very much! I'm glad you liked it. :)

[Deck Adventurers - Chapter 2]

The tweaks to the combat were interesting. formalizing the turn length to one attack, and/or 1-2 defend cards was definitely better than the last game where the enemies might attack out of sync and it was hard to coordinate your cards sometimes. or just hard to keep track of it. The introduction of allies was good for the NPCs, and summons works exactly like I'd think it should. I noticed someone else saying it's hard to see who's hitting who and while it's usually all good, I have two thoughts: 1) if I want to see if the heavy-hitting enemy is going to attack a constant ally or just a summon, I have to click on it to find it. I found myself doing this a lot at times. A UI for this would be really helpful. Maybe just an arrow instead of the flashing hit icons? Or even a player icon next to their target. 2) when say an ally is doing a sweeping attack to hit all enemies and then a summon will attack "wolf A" the visual indication for which wolf A is lost. This isn't a common issue though and it was usually pretty easy to keep track of things for the most part.

I was surprised by the change where fire attacks no longer leave ice residue and vice versa to be used as the shield. I really liked the idea and it made a lot of sense to me. I'm assuming it just didn't work for the combat mechanic you were going for though. I would personally love to see it again, but I'm sure that there was a lot of design I can't see that was behind the decision.

Is there a goal to have both characters as playable with cards within a single battle in the future? I can understand why this would be difficult to implement compared to these single and supported battles. If that is the goal, then I'd be excited to see what kinds of support cards would be usable; the fire shield applying to any unit you select and the herb doing likewise came in handy more than once. It'd be interesting if there could be a flaming weapon buff given from Berem to Tasha, or maybe Tasha warcries and all enemies switch to targeting her, leaving the more fragile wizard safe for that turn? In either case, if that's the trajectory you have in mind I can't wait to see it.

I'm really enjoying the series, I'm excited to see how this project continues. Keep up the excellent work!

Junjo responds:

I'm glad you found the changes interesting. And yes, some things still have to be improved, I take note of your suggestions.

On the ice-fire dichotomy in magic, it actually didn't quite work the way I wanted, so I changed it, but I still keep it in mind, maybe for another character (entropy wizard, maybe?) If I find the way to balance it well.

And yes, I am getting closer to being able to handle both characters with cards, but there are still some things that I would have to change. In the next chapter it will not be possible yet, but there will be more control over the allies.

Thanks, and I hope you like the next Deck Adventurers.

[Hexplore]

The puzzles are just at that sweet spot of difficulty where you can figure it out eventually. nice work! The art and tone are just the right kind of whimsical without getting too bizarre which is a common pitfall.

However, I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get the teddy bear. I'm pretty sure I know where the coin needs to go once I have it, but I can't figure out how to actually get it. Does it have to do with the butter in the kitchen or the snake's plate? I'm not sure why they highlight but I can't do anything with them. All I have now the cup or candle and a parking fee to pay.

ThePeterson responds:

Try reading the yellow sign in the kitchen and then do the opposite :)